Standing in Your Own Power
I recently came across a quote from the wonderful Olympia Dukakis that really struck a chord with me. “The reasons that somebody becomes an actor or performer and the reasons that somebody stays an actor or performer are very different things and a career is how you bridge that gap. It has to change from bringing home prizes for mommy and daddy into standing in my own purpose, standing in my own power.” I think there’s something rather brilliant about that. Most of us begin acting because of how it makes us feel. Perhaps we loved the attention, the applause, the encouragement from a teacher, or the sheer joy of pretending to be someone else. Perhaps, for the first time, we felt truly seen. There’s nothing wrong with any of those reasons. They’re wonderful reasons to begin. But are they enough to sustain us? At some point, if we’re going to build a meaningful and lasting relationship with this craft, our motivation has to evolve. We have to stop relying on other people to tell us w...